Monday, July 15, 2013

My Weekend in Pictures

I hope you all had a great weekend!

On Friday, we piled into the car and took off down to Bryce Canyon, Utah. Ryan and I had signed up for the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon, and my dad, brother, and sister-in-law came down to support us! This was my third or fourth time running this particular half marathon, but this was Ryan's very FIRST half marathon- EVER!

The sky was beautiful on the drive....

We had to wake up super early for the race (the race started at 6am) but it was nice because we stayed in a hotel that was right near the start line.

Here is a picture I took about 10 minutes before the start of the race!

So... the race was hard. Like harder than it ever has been for me. Probably because I didn't train much for it? But Ry Guy was AWESOME and ran it like he has run a billion of these races before. Near mile 10, I started to feel really sick. You know that feeling when you have the feeling of throwing up and it is just right at the base of your esophagus? Yup, that was the feeling that I had for the last 3 miles. I told Ryan at the beginning of the race, that I didn't want to stop the whole race, and for him to help me to keep going! I think in all of my half marathons that I have ran, I have stopped at least a couple of times to catch my breath for a few seconds. But this race, I didn't want to stop at all. Fast forward to mile 10, and I felt like I was going to puke! But I kept telling Ryan to not let me stop. Bless his heart, I was a little grumpy, and he just kept trying to distract me by talking about our future trip to Europe. He is amazing, and kept me going the whole race! Right as I passed the finish line, I automatically put my fist up to my mouth and was keeping myself from spewing all over the people at the finish line. I ran over to the nearest tree and puked. More than I have in a looong long time. haha So despite me feeling sick, WE DID IT!!! we got an okay time of 1:49:00 (we just wanted to get under 2 hours and we did) and I got 12th in my age group and Ryan got 13th in his age group. We'll take it!

I am so proud of this guy for running his first half marathon and for keeping me motivated to not stop!

After the race, we drove to this amazing spot that overlooked Bryce Canyon.

Then we went to Calf Creek and played around in the creek. It felt so good to ice our sore legs in the cold water..... Usually we hike up to the Calf Creek falls, but we didn't have time this trip-

But if anyone goes to Bryce Canyon, you should hike up to the Calf Creek Falls! It is 6 miles round trip and is beautiful.

major crush on this guy...

Then we made our way through Boulder, Utah.

We always make time to stop at the Burr Trail Grill. This is one of my all time FAVORITE restaurants! It is in the middle of no where, and totally surprises you with scrumptious, gourmet burgers and home-made pies. Their atmosphere is rad too-

I am still craving this place! -It is a MUST if you are in that area.

On our way home, we just HAD to stop at the little petting farm at the Scipio gas station- Maybe all you locals know what I am talking about?? It is this place where you can go right inside of the cages and hold all the animals, and feed them. They have peacocks, horses, goats, lambs, sheep, ostriches, emus, a ZEBRA (random?!) and much more. I kid you not when I say that Scipio is one of my husband's most favorite places on earth. BAHAHA he was SO happy holding the animals, and almost bawled his eyes out at the cuteness of the animals. I kept saying that he resembled Jesus with all of the animals.I was laughing my head of the whole time....

It was good to get back to our sweet girl! We missed her so much...

Although Ryan and I are now hobbling around like 90 year olds, (we seriously can barely walk, we are so sore) We had a fun weekend!